Month: December 2023

Scripture says that the child grew “in wisdom and the favor of God”. This is Jesus and this is the beginning for Him and for each of us. I find it refreshing and joyous that I started just like he did, nobody special just a newborn baby. And I find it even more powerful that I can grow in wisdom too.

Jesus repeatedly said he was not God. Remember him saying that “only God is good”? Jesus made it clear he was not God so how did we turn him into a deity to worship and not a friend to follow and fellowship with? If we leave him as God, we make it impossible to relate to him. If we see him as the ultimate example of what each of us is called to be we have hope that we too can grow in wisdom and favor with God.

Perhaps on the eve of a new year we should examine who we will choose to be in the coming year. Do we worship the man Jesus or do we call him brother and friend? Do we choose to embody love and peace and joy? What we seem to have lost sight of is that we get to choose every day. Maybe it is time to embody choice every day. That would certainly make us free. That would certainly help us all to live in this present moment.

Oscar Wilde was right “be yourself, all the others are taken “. So this year let’s choose to live in the present moment and to grow in wisdom and favor with God. Let’s truly become Christian, and embody that life that was so freely given as an example.

TMM

The scripture says “be still and know that I am God.” But what does that mean? It seems so obvious, “shut up and let God be God.” That is often the point of a sermon and is used to put people in their places. Just be still. God is the center of the universe and we should be quiet and believe that.

It sounds so clear but is it? What if the first word of this statement is the real point? In lectio divina one listens to the scripture and lets it envelope them. As it unfolds the sentence moves from the entire sentence to “be still and know God ” and then to “be still” and finally to “be”. Perhaps that is the point, just to “be”.

What if we were all just being? What if our very existence is about being? Now, that being assumes the entire verse. Our very essence is to be in God’s image and to be that image to the world. And what if, during this time of Christmas, that is the point of a very special birth? Isn’t that the real point and real hope of Christmas?

Just be! Not be still. Just be. Be you. Be the vision the world has of God among us. That is the whole scripture in summary. That is the call of the Christian life. That is the essence of Christmas, to be reborn daily and to be born as the light of the world.

TMM

The Child is coming! This is Christmas Eve and the light is coming anew. This birth will save us all. And All means all. It is too easy to limit this birthday to Christians but that betrays what God is doing every day in our world, This small child is and always has been the perfect union of Divine and human, not two separate things but one glorious thing, us!

We are all called to union with God, but more so with ourselves. This is the new birth Jesus told Nicodemus about. To once and for all be reborn in ourselves. This is the Divine dance, the true Trinity, the first and ongoing community. And each of us are called to be in community with ourselves. This is the miraculous birth we celebrate. We celebrate our birth anew.

This is the eve of new hope entering the world. And yet this is not new! We should live each day as if it is Christmas morning and we are that newborn baby. We are the lights of the world and the hope of the world. These are dark times in our world with wars, fears, and hopelessness all around. But tomorrow as we celebrate the Child we bring hope back to a weary world that needs it.

Let’s celebrate Christmas day as the newborn lights we all are. Let us be the light in these dark days of winter. Let us spill out that light on each person we touch and do it over and over again. The more light we spill the more light we will be given. Merry Christmas to you.

TMM

We in the Christian church have the Eucharist as a focal point of our lives and worship. We are taught that it is a very somber moment of remembering that Christ’s body was broken and his blood spilled for us. Except we are also led to believe all of this is our fault. If we were not such sinners, Jesus would not have had to die!

When did we forget that it is about His life and not his death? “As often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me ” was said before he had died and he asks us to think of him every time. He is asking us to remember how he lived. For so many the Eucharist is not a celebration of His life, it is a remembrance of his death. Why do we do this?

It is often convenient to control people with guilt. In the Advent season we now have the “elf on the shelf”. The elf is all about getting kids to behave and it is done through guilt. The elf is watching the kids. How is this healthy? Santa is no better with his “list”. When did we stop celebrating life and start watching for mistakes?

What if we all take the bread and wine in celebration of a life well lived? What if we stopped feeling guilty and instead celebrated the precious life we have been give? Then we could find daily ways to live out that gift in joy and service.

TMM